An estimated 5 million children died before reaching the age of five, and 2.1 million children and young people aged 5-24 lost their lives in 2021, according to the latest estimates from a UN group. The UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation found in a report that 1.9 million children were stillborn during the same period, highlighting that many of these deaths could have been prevented with equitable and high-quality healthcare for mothers, newborns, adolescents, and children.
The group warned of the potential for nearly 59 million children and young people to die before 2030, and for nearly 16 million children to be lost due to stillbirths, if swift actions are not taken to improve healthcare services. It added, "Although Sub-Saharan Africa is home to only 29 percent of the world’s live births, the region was responsible for 56 percent of all child deaths under five years of age in 2021, and South Asia accounted for 26 percent."
The report noted that "children born in Sub-Saharan Africa face the highest risk of death in the world — 15 times higher than the risk faced by children in Europe and North America," and pointed out that "mothers in these regions (Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia) also endure the painful loss of children due to stillbirths at an exceptional rate, with 77 percent of all stillbirths occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia in 2021. Nearly half of the stillbirths occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa."
